


Knives in the Dark

by Cerch



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Gen, Past Abuse, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 20:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9202508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerch/pseuds/Cerch
Summary: Queen Aslaug had thought herself free of Ragnar and when he returns she finds herself an ally.AKA in another universe where Lagertha's character wasn't slaughtered things will work out for the better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am Very Upset about 4.13.
> 
> (Shippy if you squint really hard?)

Lagertha sleeps alone in her large bed; she never permits any of her companions to stay, and so alone she wakes to the sound of hooves on the hillside, tailed by the bark of a dog.

She rises quietly, wraps herself into a fur cloak and fastens the belt where her dagger dangles before walking out of her chambers, past Astrid who is a step away from her door. Lagertha watcher her eyes widen in surprise and turn into that fierce look of pride and adoration she always gets, like she is looking at a hero from a legend – Lagertha wonders if that’s what everyone sees when she herself feels old and bored and misses both battle and ploughing the fields.

The summer night is shrouded in gentle twilight and she can see the hooded figure dismounting. The metal of her earrings chimes like a bell in the night – Lagertha knows who has come though she can’t think of single reason for her arrival.

They have only seen quick glimpses at each other over the last few years, always somehow too busy in their respective roles, and the sisterhood that had started to grow between them after the pain and jealousy Ragnar had sowed had faded has withered and died to nothingness. It is strange that she should come to Lagertha.

She strides up, and for a moment they stare at each other in silence.

“Ragnar has returned,” she says. Her voice shakes like a leaf in the wind but her words are like an arrow to the heart.

Lagertha’s own hands are unsteady when she reaches for hers.

“Bring us mead,” she orders.

As they walk in they clasp each other’s hands so tightly it hurts.

They sit down on her bed.

“You hoped he was dead,” Lagertha says.

Aslaug blinks at her, green eyes wide and haunted.

“Sometimes. Didn’t you?”

“No.” Or perhaps yes. She doesn’t know. Nothing concerning Ragnar has ever been straightforward, least of all her feelings.

Aslaug takes her hand away.

“He loved you. Never me. I was a body to warm his bed and a womb to carry him sons,” she bites down on the last words. Suddenly Lagertha thinks the gods may have placed a kinder fate on her after all.

Aslaug lifts her chin again, her curls falling away from her face. “I have given him four sons and fulfilled the destiny the gods gave me.” Her eyes are burning and she is leaning closer, words hushed but raw. “You left him when he disrespected you, you paid Sigvard back his abuse, and killed Kalf for his betrayal. Lagertha, I ask for your help. I won’t take another slap from him.”

Her stomach turns even when part of her insists that _Ragnar wouldn’t._ But she knows that King Ragnar, the man he had become, would. She remembers Sigvard’s fists, her own helplessness. She kneels on the floor to find Aslaug’s averted eyes.

“He never deserved either of us,” she says, and her smile is sharp as a knife. Aslaug opens her mouth – Astrid steps in, cocks her head at the sight, and hands them the warm tankards of mead.

That night Queen Aslaug sleeps in the bed of Earl Ingstad.


End file.
